What was your first day in Vana'diel like...

[PandyTwi]

This is on Christmas of 2010.

got scooped up by a random high-level person with a knack for helping noobs, and explored the small surrounding areas of Windy. All in all, a good day.

<--- random high-level person, lol

Hi, I'm Twilightshadow from Asura. My first day was a bit rough. I didn't get a chatpad for my xbox controller until after a week of getting the game. so I was basically mute for the most part (the horror of using the on-screen keyboard). spent the first 30 mins lost in port sandy, confused as to why I couldn't find the exit.

When I finally found it, my friend that convinced me to buy the game finally got home from work and hopped on to help me. My first linkshell was TheComplex on Pandemonium. it was a huge linkshell that had like 30+ people in it at all times, so was a bit overwhelming. I remember my very first question about the game was "where do I get some real cloths?, these rags don't sit well with me." I never actually got an answer =/. A few minutes of assistance getting used to battling outside, I was finally getting the hang of things.

After they left, I eventually got murdered by an orc, which seems to be a ritual for newcomers in sandy. So I ran around north sandy messing with the /emote's a bit. stopped and decided to practice using all of them on a nearby NPC. (the one that takes 2 bat wings for 200 gil) Pretty sure passing players were looking at me like I was crazy. Later on, my friend switched to his lower level job and we tried to take on a bunny in the plateau, a decision that ended in death for the both of us.

[Rambus]

I never herd of FFXI comming out. I picked it up at a store one day by mistake. I was trying to buy a keyboard or something but I bought FFXI insted because I like FF games, did not even know it was online at first till i read the box.

I started in port bastok running out and killing bees. I kept trying to kill bees intil i died because I did not know about /heal. as time went on I would run into my mog house in port bastok to heal. I had someone try to give me something but I did not know about how to accept trades. I do remember seeing dia in my invetory after trading him though so i went back out with my new spell.

I then ran into someone telling me to "dance" i told him i was confused and I did not know what that ment. He then said type /panic so i did and he thought it was funny. something about tarutaru and panic i dont know and i just went on my way thinking "ooooooooooooooooooook that was strange"

[Imakun]

I remember I ordered it in December 2004 and I began playing it on January 1st, 2005. I also remember I was ill, flu and everything lol
I created my first character on a random server, can't remember witch one, just so I could try it out. I started as a Hume in San d'Oria and god I fell in love with the game from the very first cutscene.
I started out as a WHM (yea.. not good lol) and went out to kill bunnies. I knew I could /heal, but I just used /sit for good while until I figured it out lol
Couldn't do much more because my head was like.. exploding but I did saw a Summoner running into San d'Oria with Fenrir out. Classic, I was sold on Summoner ahah
A few days after that I started again from scratch on Ragnarok with the same character I'm still using today.

[Jamesruglia]

On my first day... I killed worms and bees. I skipped karate for that day just to play, which was inconsequential in the long run, but I regret doing that nonetheless-not that FF11 wasn't great(or isn't still), just, you know, priorities and all that.

Laniff(Keitaro), Starfury, Meiron, Okaminozan, Nialya, Qoogirl, and Qoopingu are all names I remember from that time.

[Haldarn]

January 2006 - Hydra Server.

I'd picked up the demo CD off the front of an Xbox Magazine and decided to give FFXI a go. Although a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, I had avoided FFXI (and all MMOs for that matter) due to the monthly fee, but this trial was free so I figured what the hey.

I started as a Hume in Bastok. Straight away I was overwhelmed. As I had no real goal, I set about exploring the city and talking to every NPC I saw. I got about as far as Bastok Markets before I had to log off.

A couple of weeks later, after being badgered by a friend, I tried again - this time as an Elvaan in San d'Oria. It seemed Sandy held the magic for me and I was hooked. There were hundreds of low-level players at this point, as it was a new server population, so getting parties was easy enough. I actually remember it being hard to find enough mobs to xp on and ended up teaming up with a random chap. Of course, when I asked him what "xxx lot for the xxx: 612 points" meant everytime we killed a mob, he told me not to worry about it...

The main aim of the game for me was to get to level 10-12 and find a place in a Dunes party. It was chaos there - White Mages running about the place shouting that they would Raise for 1-2k gil, parties camping on top of each other for xp, fierce competition for subjob items and the obligatory MPKs at the entrance to Selbina from ppl zoning trying to escape mobs. After this, I discovered ffxi.somepage (oh for a sortable/filterable item database!) and ffxiclopedia and the world opened up.

April came, with the release of ToAU and everyone dispersed to separate servers. I started paying the monthly fee without batting an eyelid.

[Ryce]

I started FFXI on opening day (in US, anyway). I had been following news of the game, being a huge fan of the series, and had pre-ordered the Windows version for my custom-built PC. My first memory of the game was being very disturbed that my 5 friends who had also purchased the game could not choose a starting server. WTF SE?!

I was more into the game out of the gate than any of them, however, and was able to obtain a world pass within a few days. I remember the frustration of being MURDERED by a rabbit which looked exactly like the rabbit I just defeated with ease... (Wild Rabbit vs Forest Hare). I faced my fair share of face plants at the hands of wondering Oricish Grapplers. All in all though, it was love at first sight.

A buddy of mine was intrigued and would watch me play. He asked all the questions I didn't know the answers to. This resulted in us taking turns - one would play while the other studied the Brady Games guide :P I eventually bought a PS2 HDD and copy of the game so we could play side by side. A couple of my other good friends would bring their PCs over and we would start a party to tackle the dunes. Funny how hard it was to get an effect group of 6 with 3-4 members sitting in the same room...

I really miss the sense of adventure that came with the new game. I've tried other games hoping to recapture that feeling... but none compare to FFXI. For all of it's shortcomings, this game has something intangible that makes it my favorite.

[Trendkiller]

I watched my RL friend play on his computer for like two days and I couldn't stop laughing at him because he always locked himself in the house when new games came out. Then I heard it was coming to the PS2 for some reason I went and bought it. I set it all up and logged in I was beyond helpless. My RL friend tells me do this and that and doesn't really show me anything. I get level 2 then 3 then 4 and I think i'm like the man because I did this with like no help. So one day my friend logs on and he calls me on the phone and is like i'm gonna help you today becuase you got the basics down now. Well about 5 minutes after he logged on he says I got a party invite in the dunes. So your on your own. So here I am level 4 and I have no clue wtf to do or go so I ran all the way to the dunes from Bastok. I sat next to the hp npc as you zone in from the highlands for like 2 hours just waiting for an invite to party as a lvl 4 Elvaan THF rank 1. The next day the brady guide came out and it became my bible. I figured out what to do and where to go. I got my sub job and decided i would go to Sandy to pick my new sub job. Thats where I met Fallenkinght and really learned how fun this game could be. We did some stupid stuff and lol'd the whole time. I went back to the dunes to level up my new sub job and I met Bippo/Tivadar who gave me my first Linkshell. That opened up a whole another level of XI. Jben was the leader and he was a lvl 50 RDM. he was like a god to me and Bippo he helped us do everything including getting our "Advanced Jobs" lvl 30 jobs. Jben gave everyone a Pearlsack so they could pearl everyone they wanted. I was now lvl 40 THF/MNK and helping another RL friend who started the game get his sub job when we went to the mines to get his magicked skull. That when my friend was like I gotta log which was his thing ask for help then log when u got there to help. This day it really annoyed me but only for a short bit because I was about to meet one of my best friends in XI and go on aventures I never dreamed of. Memnoch was a lvl 30orsomething RDM and he was killing something I didn't have a clue about NMs. Memnoch and a few friends all shared 1 ps2 and 1 xi account so they all played Memnoch so at any point in the day somebody was on Memnoch and ready to do anything and everything. The more insane it sounded the more we wanted to go do it. Once we got to 75 A whole nother story began. Some of our friends have left the world of XI. Some stayed and went their own ways. But then you have the ones who started this adventure together and still stand side by side in battle with you til this day.

[Kindra]

I started just before CoP came out. Taru BLM on Alexander. I have Twilights 30 mins beat though lol, I was lost for the first 2 days in sandy!! Finally a hume PLD found me asking in say how to get out so i could play lol. He took me out side and said ok kill the bunny. I started attacking and he cured me through it. I was so proud of myself when it died. Then he looked at me and said "Equip your staff and learn your spell." I went huh???? I didn't realize I even had them lmao. My first LS was with RL friends, but none of them were in Sandy at the time.... they had gone to Windy lmao. After i learned my spell and had staff on i was golden the PLD told me to have fun and left. The next day i met a JP player and he duoed with me. I didn't know how to use the auto translate at the time though and kept trying to talk to him in english. He just kept going after telling me hi didn't speak english. He lvled with me for 2 days lol. Day 4 i might a guy from LV and we learned that JEJ was mean at lvl 6 lol. Any way those were my first few days .

[Sinthetic]

Man My first Day Was very Frustrating LMAO
By the time i figured out how to set up the Resolutions and all the stuff took me a good 3 hours lmao !

I Started WAR!!!! I log on there i am in Sandy im so lost it took me like 20min to figured out how to leave the City LMAO
so there i am outside Sandy Ready to take on the world with my lvl 1 War and a Onion Sword lmao My first target was a Rabbit lol took me a good while To figure out i dont have to keep hitting enter to keep doing melee attacks LMAO auto-Attack what is that !!!! lol lmao i was such a Noob-Cake soooo after many many MANY deaths i was like i need something to cure my self.... Off to the AH i said ! First thing i bought was a Scroll of Cure for my lvl3 WAR after many times trying to use it i figure out i cant lmao Well there goes all my gill Awesome !! XD

Good times tho i wont change em for the world !!!

[Andevom]

Andyee on Seraph 2003:

I start the game as an Elvaan THF in Bastok, which clearly shows I had no idea what I was doing. I figured "THF is probably underplayed because people love Warriors and Mages, and the Elvaan guy in the opening Cutscene used a bow and arrow like thieves do!" but I soon realize that leveling THF as your first job is awful for the first few levels, especially playing as a race with low DEX. I went on a bee and worm slaughterfest and soon wished for those lovely potions I was used to in previous Final Fantasy games.

"Hey, those are always cheap, and a great way to heal yourself!" Much to my dismay, potions may as well be solid gold corn dogs to a new adventurer. The price was too high for me, and I would settle for no less than 50 of them due to my desire to keep pressing on without stopping to heal. I was also perplexed as to why thieves start out with a knife despite a sword doing so much more damage. So I run to get myself a trusty Onion Sword and gleefully "cuts me way through" more bees and worms. Of course, I was completely obvious to the fact that this would make my dagger skill suffer in the future.

Upon reaching Lv. 5 and getting the "Steal" ability, I felt like I was going to be raking in the big bucks. "Bwaahaha, so maybe playing as a THF is rough on doing damage, but I'll be able to get some big money items now. Those potion stacks will be mine for practically pennies!"

Moments later:

"What's a beastcoin? Is it valuable? ....Wait...five minute cooldown!? Double wait, that's all the gil I'm going to get from a goblin!?" It was at this point that I feared my THF profiting skills were going to fall short of expectations. Then I started to feel tension from the baddies around me. I wasn't the fearsome force I was to bees and worms against the Lizards, Quadavs and Goblins. Shortly after trying my luck with a Rock Lizard, I learned what being KOed was like.

And that's all I can remember from my first night in Vana'diel. But the days that followed were filled with enlightenment, embarrassment, and amusing stories.